Truc Bach Lake is the small, quiet sister of West Lake, separated from it only by the narrow strip of Thanh Nien Road. It is ringed by old apartment blocks, caf\u00e9s and noodle shops, and on calm evenings the water reflects the lights of the Ngu Xa neighbourhood. For most visitors, though, Truc Bach is known for one story: this is where a young US Navy pilot called John McCain landed in 1967.<\/p>\n
Truc Bach was once part of West Lake. In the 17th century a dyke was built across the water so that fish could be raised in the smaller lake, and that dyke later became Thanh Nien Road. The name means \u201cwhite bamboo\u201d: villagers on the shore made bamboo screens, and in the 18th century the Trinh lords built a palace here that was later turned into a place of confinement for palace women, who wove a fine silk that became known as Truc Bach silk.<\/p>\n
On 26 October 1967, during a bombing raid on Hanoi, the A-4 Skyhawk flown by Lieutenant Commander John McCain was hit by a missile. He ejected with broken arms and a broken leg and came down in Truc Bach Lake, where local people pulled him from the water. He spent more than five years as a prisoner of war, many of them in the Hoa Lo prison (the \u201cHanoi Hilton\u201d), and later became a US senator who worked for reconciliation between Vietnam and the United States.<\/p>\n
A stone stele on the lakeside records the capture. Its text was revised in 2015 to correct his service (US Navy, not Air Force), and in 2025 the memorial was renovated and enlarged, with new granite and more space around it. It is believed to be the only public memorial to an American in Vietnam, and visiting US delegations often stop to lay flowers.<\/p>\n
Truc Bach is also a food stop: the little island of Ngu Xa on its northern shore is where pho cuon<\/em> \u2014 fresh pho noodle sheets rolled around beef and herbs \u2014 was invented. Our jeep city tour, electric scooter tour, Green Sisters tour and e-bike tour all pass the lake.<\/p>\n Truc Bach is the smaller, quieter sister of West Lake, separated from it by Thanh Nien Road. Most visitors come for the lakeside John McCain stele, which records where the US Navy pilot came down in 1967 and which was renovated and enlarged in 2025. Pair it with a plate of pho cuon on the little island of Ngu Xa, where the dish was invented, a stroll along Thanh Nien Road at sunset, or a pedal on the swan boats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u30bf\u30a4\u6e56\u306e\u96a3\u306b\u4f47\u3080\u9759\u304b\u306a\u30aa\u30a2\u30b7\u30b9\u3002\u30d9\u30c8\u30ca\u30e0\u6226\u4e89\u6642\u306e\u30b8\u30e7\u30f3\u30fb\u30de\u30b1\u30a4\u30f3\u5143\u7c73\u4e0a\u9662\u8b70\u54e1\u306e\u8a18\u5ff5\u7891\u304c\u5efa\u3061\u3001\u540d\u7269\u300c\u30d5\u30a9\u30fc\u30af\u30aa\u30a4\uff08\u5dfb\u304d\u30d5\u30a9\u30fc\uff09\u300d\u306e\u767a\u7965\u5730\u3068\u3057\u3066\u3082\u77e5\u3089\u308c\u308b\u98a8\u5149\u660e\u5a9a\u306a\u6e56\u3067\u3059\u3002<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":7,"menu_order":15,"template":"","eta_destination":[9],"class_list":["post-179","eta_place","type-eta_place","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_place\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_place"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/eta_place"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_place\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"eta_destination","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ecotripasia.com\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/eta_destination?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What to see at Truc Bach Lake<\/h2>\n